International Student Energy Summit

Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico, delivered a rousing keynote address in Calgary last week at the International Student Energy Summit (ISES). He declared a need for “re-energizing” NAFTA and for wholesale fiscal reform in his home country. He encouraged and applauded the leadership of those in the room, and talked about political decision making as an exercise in applying ethics. His remarks were well delivered and engaging, but not surprising.

What was unexpected though, were the hard-nosed questions in response from audience members. Students from Mexico, Columbia, and Alberta, Canada stood at the microphone and asked how can fiscal reform be achieved, what particular strategies can be applied by foreign investors to create business opportunities without sparking the lingering resentments of those accustomed to Western exploitation, how democracy and free markets can become compatible in Latin America, and whether it was fair for carbon emission standards to apply equally in the developing and developed world. Fox immediately became an artful dodger, speaking in eloquent generalizations.

Yet the lunch was still a highlight for many of the 300 plus student and young professional delegates who gathered from around the world for the three day conference. A dinner and social at Ranchman’s Cookhouse had many of them ‘mingling’ late into the evening on day two; a gala dinner with keynote speaker Jeremy Rifkin, president of The Foundation on Economic Trends, gathered everyone together on Friday night.

Among the other speakers were: Dr. David Layzell, executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Environment and Economy (ISEEE), Dr. Pierce Riemer, secretary general of the World Petroleum Council, Dr. Michael Klare, author of "Resource Wars" and "Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency", Dr. Gustav Grob, executive secretary of the International Sustainable Energy Organization, and Sabrina Sullivan of Deloitte Consulting LLP.

A panel on the future of the oil sands took place on Friday morning, featuring Bill McFarlane, past president of the Canadian Heavy Oil Association, Matt Fox, senior vice president of Oil Sands at Conoco Philips Canada, author Andrew Nikiforuk, Jennifer Grant, policy analyst for Pembina Institute, Calvin Duane, manager of regulatory and environmental affairs at Canadian Natural Resources Limited, and Wishart Robson, senior advisor for safety and climate change at Nexen Inc.

“This the world’s largest energy project and the world’s largest engineering project,” said Nikiforuk of the oil sands, “We have failed to manage our part of the value chain, and as former Premier Peter Lougheed says, we have failed to capture our fair share.”

Not surprisingly, industry representation disagreed. “Industry sees themselves as on the front lines, providing a highly desirable resource which supports the rest of Canada with billions of dollars,” said Duane, “Yet we are besieged on every side.”

As with the end of each session, a student organizer of the conference provided a summary of the panel discussion. “That was probably the best panel I’ve ever heard,” she said, “I got like fifteen text messages while you were speaking and I was like, this is awesome!”

Published in National Post, June 20 2009